A good number of you have read the post below, detailing an horrific case of animal abuse by a Minneapolis woman named Stacey Champion. Unfortunately, a very decent lady shares the same name and age as the defendant in the puppy-mailing case.
Whilst the puppy-mailing incident is absolutely true, it should be noted that this lady did not commit such a heinous act. I trust that none of you went will-nilly e-mailing threats to anyone regardless of whom you believed you were sending them to. We like to think of our names as being unique, but they're really not. A quick check in a phone book may reveal dozens of people in your city with the same name. An old coworker is one of two fellows in Canada with his name, made far worse by the fact they share the same birth date. The now-retired carpenter is a clean-living guy, but the other fellow is a career criminal. Needless to say, this has brought him some difficulty.
A more personal instance was involving 2 cousins who have the same name. The wrong one wound up being the executrix of an estate that hasn't been settled 5 years after the fact. When I was a kid, a guy with the same name as my dad was killed in a car crash and we were sure it was him, relieved for ourselves when it was some other poor soul's dad. My housemate was stopped at the border because he shares several names with a brother and refused entry into the U.S. on Christmas Eve. I can only imagine that it must be quite dreadful to be one of the people named Ted Bundy or Paul Bernardo or even one of the several Wayne Gretzkys. This week it stinks to be a nice lady who loves her dog who happens to share the same name with an absolute moron.
It really must stink to share a name with a notorious person. I will never know this fact since I am the only person in North America with my name. I'm absolutely certain that none of you go randomly emailing people accused of crimes, but there are some folks that do. And those people are the type of idiots who likely couldn't be bothered to notice that they were sending hatemail to someone who lives in Phoenix for the crime of sharing the same name as someone who lives in Minnesota.
Details matter.
I hardly read anyone's blogs but I should read more of yours they are always interesting and the perfect length for the internet.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading that a woman named Linda who happened to have married a man named Tripp had a terrible time for a while and one time was even refused service in a store.